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Merkel slams Russian move on Georgia in phone call to Medvedev

Georgia Materials 27 August 2008 19:17 (UTC +04:00)

German Chancellor Angela Merkel repeated her criticism of Russia's decision to recognize the Georgian breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in a phone conversation with Russian President Dimitry Medvedev Wednesday, dpa reported.

"I made clear that I would have expected that one would discuss the issue in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) or in the UN security council, before unilateral recognition," the chancellor told journalists.

She noted that Georgia's territorial integrity had been stressed in several security council resolutions on which Russia had cooperated.

Earlier, Merkel's office released a statement on the call to Medvedev.

The chancellor had called for the immediate implementation of a six-point plan agreed by Medvedev and French President Nicolas Sarkozy last week, it said.

Merkel saw the continuing Russian presence in Georgia outside the two regions, for example in the Black Sea port of Poti, as serious contraventions of the six-point plan, the statement said.

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